This invention relates to the production of electrical energy and more particularly to the collection of static electricity from the atmosphere.
Everyone is familiar with Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment of 1752. Using a kite whose string had become wet, negative charges from the passing clouds flowed into the string, down to the suspended key, and then into a Leyden jar via a thin metal wire. Franklin was protected by a dry silk string; but, when Franklin's knuckle came too close to the key, he received a strong shock. Fortunately, Benjamin Franklin was not killed, others who tried this same experiment were not so lucky.
Since then, the formation of lightning has remained something of a mystery. Lightning bolts are triggered when a negatively charged cloud base induces a positive charge from the ground, thereby forming a “pathway” for the discharge of the collected electrical energy.
Lightning travels up to 60,000 miles per hour with a flash that is brighter than ten million 100-watt lightbulbs. This wattage is as much power as is produced by all of the electricity plants in the United States and with a voltage of up to 300 million volts.
It is this very fact, the power within lightning is immense, that has prevented any successful collection of the electrical energy from lightning. The electricity in lightning is far too extreme for current technology to harness.
While lightning has attracted a energy starved industrial world, no one has developed any technique to harness this naturally occurring electrical source.
It is clear there is a continuing need for an electrical source other than carbon-based fuels and that the naturally occurring electricity in the atmosphere is being ignored.